When Cinecittà Studios puts out a casting call for a new child actress, they’re flooded with starry-eyed stage mothers and their talentless tots, among them Anna Magnani’s working-class Roman nurse and her rather indifferent daughter, whom Magnani is driven to make a star. As in similar Hollywood melodramas such as Sunset Boulevard, Bellissima both romanticizes the power of celluloid dreams and delivers a cuttingly cynical takedown of the industry. Magnani’s affecting performance as a mother whose desperate longing for success is outweighed only by her love for her child helps the film achieve true poignancy (Lincoln Center). Courtesy of MovieTime. Restored by Centro Sperimentale di Cinematografia-Cineteca Nazionale in collaboration with Compass Film.
